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Jurors on the second-degree murder trial of Joseph R. Hutcheson were told Tuesday that a fistfight that preceded the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Kenneth Sweet had ended, and the combatants moved off in different directions when Hutcheson broke away from his group to physically confront the straggling Sweet.

Patricia Gregory, a resident of the area at the time and one of the first to provide aid to the fatally injured man, testified that neither Sweet nor Hutcheson had participated in the fist fight on Weller Avenue, near Wiley Street, that summer night 32 months ago. She didn’t actually know either of them before that night, she told jurors, becoming emotional as she recalled what happened. But she deduced they had each supported one of the street fighters: Hutcheson in the camp of Timothy Holder, now 26, and Sweet backing his friend Patrick Villeneuve, who came out on top in the altercation before walking away.

Gregory also told jurors that it was the third time that day she’d had dealings with Holder.

It began, she said, around 1:30 p.m. on June 28, 2010, when her eldest son, then 14, sought her out to intervene with a friend of his, who was about to take on his fifth opponent of the day in a backyard boxing match on Compton Street.

She told jurors that the boxing is a pastime for young teens in the area — “they just fool around and hit each other,” according to Gregory, until one is knocked off his feet and the fighter still standing is declared the winner.

She said: “The kids get trouble from the adults,” but her son’s friend “he’s a bad one for it.”

She arrived, she testified, to find a bunch of people standing around and a couple of kids preparing to fight. And she soon became aware of two antagonistic young adult males in the crowd. “I found out later it was Timmy Holder and Josh Scott,” she said.

She recalled that Scott, at one point, had one boxing glove on and was twirling the other around and telling Holder to get his own gloves on “so we can do this thing.”

Initially, she said, she had the impression that Holder didn’t want to fight, but he was smiling at Scott, and Gregory said that was making him angrier.

She also gathered from their conversation that Scott was demanding redress, because he claimed Holder had flicked a cigarette that caught him in the leg.

Gregory testified that she interceded on behalf of the youngsters who were present and the fight didn’t happen.

“I just went up to them and said, ‘look there’s too many little kids here’. ”

She saw Holder again a few hours later, around 4 p.m., she recalled, when he stopped at her back gate and thanked her for interfering. Gregory said Holder and his girlfriend were on their way to Sunshine Variety at the time.

Not long after, she saw them walking back from the variety store along the lane past her gate when two vehicles suddenly pulled in at the end of the lane and Scott and several other people got out. He started yelling at Holder and Holder yelled back, she recalled, “and then a whole bunch of people appeared.”

Gregory said she told Scott and his friends, “if you don’t live here, get out of here,” and a couple of young girls in the group sassed her back, suggesting “If I didn’t want my kids to watch, to take them inside.”

The group left without violence, however, and Gregory said she went back to her family and passed several hours with no further trouble, until well after dark.

Eventually, however, she heard someone outside calling her name and went out to find Dustyn Salter, a friend of Holder’s, had come to fetch her.

“He said ‘it’s Timmy again,’” she testified, “and he’s fighting again.” Gregory said Salter wanted her to intervene and argued that “he’s listened to you twice so far.”

Gregory said she followed Salter onto Weller Avenue and saw Holder in the street exchanging words with a man she didn’t recognize and “someone said ‘that’s Pat’.”

She got between the two men and had one hand on each trying to reason with them, she testified. But “the crowd was hollering back and forth and there was a lady behind me telling me to get out of the way, and when I turned around to talk to her they started to fight.”

Gregory said she later learned the woman who had been demanding she let the two fight was Patrick Villeneuve’s mother, but she didn’t suggest a reason for the fight.

She only recalled hearing Holder say, “well, if you don’t care, let’s get this done,” just before they traded blows.

“I heard the hits and the crowd got really loud,” she told jurors, “and I turned around and Timmy (Holder) was on the ground and Pat (Villeneuve) was just feeding the punches to him.”

Then, “an older man I learned after was Tony (Crowder, Villeneuve’s stepfather) leaned over and said, ‘he’s had enough son, let’s go,’” and the fight was ended.

Gregory said Holder was helped to his feet and he, Salter and Hutcheson walked back to unit 9 at 199 Weller Ave. and sat on the steps. Villeneuve and Crowder, with Sweet lagging a little behind, walked off toward Holy Family Church.

She estimated it took less than two minutes for the latter group to reach the intersection.

She’d started to walk home with her own kids, she said, when she heard Hutcheson hollering. She couldn’t make out what he was saying. But she told jurors there’s a little hill in front of unit 9 and Hutcheson came down off the hill and suddenly gave Sweet a two-handed shove — and Sweet pushed him back.

She said she heard Hutcheson on that initial shove announce: “My buddy got the beats, now you’re goin’ to get the beats,” and she thought Sweet responded with, “what’s your problem,” although the word “problem” was the only word she heard clearly.

Gregory said she turned toward the voice and realized it was Hutcheson and told him “to get away from me. I was busy — and he just walked out into the street.”

Hutcheson’s defence lawyer, David Crowe, noted during his cross examination that Gregory initially told police Hutcheson had said only, “You shouldn’t have done that, man. You shouldn’t have done it.”

But she now recalls there was more to the statement. The exact words used, however, have varied since Hutcheson’s preliminary hearing, when she testified his final sentiment was, “… you shouldn’t have done it. You wouldn’t have got this.”

Gregory said her attention was taken up with Sweet at the time. He was having difficulty breathing and complaining of the cold.

She recalled hearing someone say “I did it” and saw Hutcheson some distance away with his hands in the air.

Kingston Police had arrived by then, in response to a 911 call.

“I told Kenny that help was on the way, police are here,” Gregory said.

She testified that a police officer came over and spoke to her, told her she was doing good and to keep it up, then asked if she’d seen who might have done this. “I said you have him in your car.”

She told jurors the details of that night are clear in her memory because “to me, it feels like it was yesterday. There’s not a day that goes by I don’t think of Kenny.”